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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What bird stays in flight for more than 10 years? (1 Viewer)

C

crybllrd

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A few years ago, I was listening to a podcast (Skeptics Guide to the Universe) and one of the items they were talking about is a bird that stays in flight as long as 17 years.
I found it was true by finding it in an encyclopedia, but now I have forgotten what the bird was called.
Does anyone know?
 
joannec said:
The only time they land is to nest.
Click to expand...

Which we could assume is an annual thing...so that's them ruled out..."alberts" are often quoted but ya gotta assume (word o' the day there...) they'll settle on the sea even if they don't come back to land to breed for several years after fledging...lotta ocean and few watchers...sounds like a quote that belonged to yesterday...
 
joannec said:
They eat on the wing, sleep on the wing and mate on the wing. The only time they land is to nest.
Click to expand...

Not quite right. I've seen Apus apus flying around pine trees at dusk and entering the canopy and clinging to the branches with head pointing skywards. At first light one swift was observed with head pointing to the ground.

John.
 
If non stop flight is what your looking for albatrosses definitely are not a contender, they regularly rest on the water generally when feeding and often around fishing vessels where they scavenge on scraps and feed on fish, squid etc...

And as already said, Swifts spend most of their time on the wing, but not 10+ years, they at the very least eventually nest and therefore have to land.

John, found your note on Swifts roosting in pine trees very interesting, haven't heard of that before. Thanks for sharing!
 
I think it is bogus information. The closest one I can think of is frigate birds which probably will not land between leaving their nest as young and making their own nest a few years later: they are so clumsy that they normally do not land on land, and they get wet if on the sea, so they do not land there either.

And before someone asks: they do eat flying fish, scraps from fishermen cleaning fish, and chase after boobies to make them regurgitate their catch. I regularly see them take hight at sunset.

Niels
 
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